Gotootie: The New Way to Stalk

Rollins students, if you are like me you recently checked your e-mail and found a message from Gotootie… and then immediately deleted it.Well, it turns out this e-mail was not just a promotional attempt by our friends from Tutti Frutti, rather an entirely new social networking group for Rollins and UCF students.

According to the makers of Gotootie.com, “Whether you’re at Cornell Hall, McKean Hall (sic) or having a nonfat Macchiato at Star­bucks on Park Ave., you’ll be able to instantly discover, share and con­nect with other students in your surroundings from your laptop computer.”

Nice try Gotooie, but it seems as though someone beat you to the punch. His name is Mark Zucker­berg and he created a little some­thing we all know as Facebook. However, it is interesting that this program is created to cater to Rol­lins and UCF students exclusively.

The way Gotootie describes its site is reminiscent of Twitter as well. People can go on and “share links, make requests, leave comments about a class or tell people what is going on in your dorm – simply select the appropriate category and share.”

The problem I see with this is it is simply another way for our al­ready small community to “stalk” and “lurk” each other at an even closer range than with Facebook or Twitter.

The truth is I am just as guilty as every other Facebooker when it comes to lurking around my friends on the site. However, it seems as though stalking has become the sole purpose of social networking sites. In fact, Gotootie even adver­tises that one of its main purposes is to share “gossip” within the com­munity. I worry that rather than joining the community together, sites of this nature tear us apart.

On a grander scale, Gotoo­tie simply adds to the concept that people are no longer communicat­ing face to face. Why have conver­sations when you can shoot some­one a text? Why go out of your way to set up a meeting when you can inbox someone?

In my opinion, we have a di­sastrous communication dilemma on our hands. Again, I am guilty of these interpersonal faux pas, but I think it is important that we at least realize what sites and programs like Gotootie are doing to us as a group and work to reconnect more with people and less with our Internet browser.